Lebanon News and World News Live from Beirut

UN Security Council holds emergency session on Israel raids

The U.N. Security Council met in a closed emergency meeting on Wednesday night to discuss Israeli strikes against the Gaza Strip as Israel threatened a wider offensive in the Palestinian enclave to stem rocket salvoes by Hamas militants.

Diplomats said U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman was briefing the 15-nation council. Israeli and Palestinians envoys will also have a chance to speak.

Separately, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s press office said in two separate statements that he spoke on the telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mohamed Mursi of Egypt.

“(Ban) expressed his concern (to Netanyahu) about the deteriorating situation in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip, which includes an alarming escalation of indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and the targeted killing by Israel of a Hamas military operative in Gaza,” the U.N. said.

Ban also voiced his expectation that “Israeli reactions are measured so as not to provoke a new cycle of bloodshed.”

He also discussed with Mursi “the need to prevent any further deterioration,” the United Nations said in a second statement.

U.S. President Barack Obama also spoke with Netanyahu and Mursi and reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s right to self-defense in light of rocket attacks from Gaza, the White House said.

“The president urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties. The two agreed that Hamas needs to stop its attacks on Israel to allow the situation to de-escalate,” the White House statement said.

Israel launched a new major offensive against Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza on Wednesday, killing Hamas’ military commander in an air strike and threatening an invasion of the enclave that the Islamist group said would “open the gates of hell.

‘MALICIOUS ONSLAUGHT’

The emergency Security Council meeting came at the request of Egypt, Morocco and the Palestinians.

“Once again the international community is witness to Israel’s malicious onslaught, using the most lethal military means and illegal measures against the defenseless Palestinian civilian population,” the Palestinian Authority’s U.N. envoy, Riyad Mansour, told the Security Council.

He urged the council to act. “A direct firm message must be sent to Israel to cease immediately its military campaign against the Palestinian people and to abide … by its obligations under international law,” Mansour said, according to a text of his statement distributed to reporters.

“The Israeli occupying forces are now mobilizing on the ground as we speak,” Mansour said. “Fear and panic are spreading among the Palestinian civilian population.”

The militant group Hamas, not the Palestinian Authority, controls Gaza.

Speaking to reporters, Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor urged the international community to condemn “indiscriminate rocket fire against Israeli citizens – children, women.” He was referring to escalating Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza.

A group of Arab ambassadors appeared before reporters ahead of the council meeting. Speaking on their behalf, Sudanese Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman urged the council to condemn Israel’s “barbaric heinous attack.”

In a letter to Indian Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, president of the 15-nation council this month, Mansour said the council should also call for an to “extrajudicial killing.”

Prosor described the Hamas military commander killed by Israel, Ahmed Al-Jaabari, as a “mass murderer” who had been planning fresh attacks against Israeli citizens.

It was unclear what a Security Council meeting would achieve since the 15-nation body is generally deadlocked on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which envoys say is due to the U.S. determination to protect Israeli.

A new Gaza war has loomed for months as waves of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli strikes have grown more intense and frequent.

Mansour said earlier the Israeli action was intended to draw attention away from the Palestinians’ plan to seek an upgrade of its observer status at the United Nations from that of an “entity” to a “non-member state,” implicitly recognizing Palestinian statehood.

Israel and the United States have made clear they would oppose the Palestinian upgrade, which would give it the right to join international bodies like the International Criminal Court, where it could file legal complaints against Israel.

U.N. diplomats said a vote on the Palestinian request was tentatively scheduled for November 29. A senior Western diplomat said the Palestinians would easily secure 120 to 130 votes out of the 193-nation General Assembly, which would ensure the success of their upgraded status at the United Nations.

Israel’s false flag attacks have now given them the green light to continue the extermination of the rightful owners of the Holy land. Especially as the arabs are feuding amongst themselves in distraction. Arabs must wake up,This is a perfect window of opportunity to redirect the focus of the energy of the Arab uprisings ,immediately and collectively towards the elimination of the terrorist Zionist regime. The reppercussions of That single action will change the world as we know it in the best way possible .

master09

And the Jews where never there rite….but no one wants to see that side of history and that is why PEACE WILL NEVER BE, WITH VIEWS LIKE THAT..AND THE ARABS ARE PEACE LOVING PEOPLE RITE…AND I’M LEBANESE ,,,YES I AM…RATHER THAN SAYING BOTH SIDES ARE WRONG AND BOTH ARE DOING EVIL THINGS YOU ALL WANT TO BLAME ONE SIDE.. BOTH ARE WRONG………..SO HAMAS FIRING ROCKETS FIRST AND FOR MONTHS MEANS NOTHING RITE..LOL

IT WANT BE THE SIX DAY WAR BUT RATHER A 3 DAY WAR AND YOU WOULD LOVE TO SEE THAT, KIDS WOMEN MEN DIEING BE IT JEWS OR ARABS…. RATHER THAN SCREAMING FOR PEACE FROM BOTH SIDES…..

Btru2u

Israel’s false flag attacks have now given them the green light to continue the extermination of the rightful owners of the Holy land. Especially as the arabs are feuding amongst themselves in distraction. Arabs must wake up,This is a perfect window of opportunity to redirect the focus of the energy of the Arab uprisings ,immediately and collectively towards the elimination of the terrorist Zionist regime. The reppercussions of That single action will change the world as we know it in the best way possible .

master09

And the Jews where never there rite….but no one wants to see that side of history and that is why PEACE WILL NEVER BE, WITH VIEWS LIKE THAT..AND THE ARABS ARE PEACE LOVING PEOPLE RITE…AND I’M LEBANESE ,,,YES I AM…RATHER THAN SAYING BOTH SIDES ARE WRONG AND BOTH ARE DOING EVIL THINGS YOU ALL WANT TO BLAME ONE SIDE.. BOTH ARE WRONG………..SO HAMAS FIRING ROCKETS FIRST AND FOR MONTHS MEANS NOTHING RITE..LOL

master09

and when will the UN discuss the rockets going into the Jewish side….first……or that is not seen rite…. I am not a jewish or Arab lover but peace will never be when you have HAMAS who Iran wants THEM to rule Gaza with an iron FIST so NO PEACE WILL EVER COME TO THE COUTRY AND THAT ALSO INCLUDES lEBANON NOT HAVING PEACE…HAMAS DO NOT WANT PEACE FOR THE PEOPLE.
I,M WAITING PEOPLE, HIT WITH YOUR BEST SHOT…

master09

and when will the UN discuss the rockets going into the Jewish side….first……or that is not seen rite…. I am not a jewish or Arab lover but peace will never be when you have HAMAS who Iran wants THEM to rule Gaza with an iron FIST so NO PEACE WILL EVER COME TO THE COUTRY AND THAT ALSO INCLUDES lEBANON NOT HAVING PEACE…HAMAS DO NOT WANT PEACE FOR THE PEOPLE.
I,M WAITING PEOPLE, HIT WITH YOUR BEST SHOT…

ProContraryIan

When Palestine is voted, by the UN General Assembly, to be recognized as a “state”, then there will no longer be a pretense for the Palestinian civilians .. then actions against Israel by Hamas or Islamic Jihad or any other ‘militant’ group will either be acts of war between “states” or will be a criminal activity. If the latter, Palestine will need to apprehend and extradite the criminals, according to international law. If the former, Israel will consider Palestine to have declared war on Israel and respond militarily in a defensive war … Just don’t expect there to be an “refugees” of Arab descent left inside what will, as a result become, Greater Israel.

1312 5551212

When Palestine is voted, by the UN General Assembly, to be recognized as a “state”, then there will no longer be a pretense for the Palestinian civilians .. then actions against Israel by Hamas or Islamic Jihad or any other ‘militant’ group will either be acts of war between “states” or will be a criminal activity. If the latter, Palestine will need to apprehend and extradite the criminals, according to international law. If the former, Israel will consider Palestine to have declared war on Israel and respond militarily in a defensive war … Just don’t expect there to be an “refugees” of Arab descent left inside what will, as a result become, Greater Israel.